Be our guest, be our guest

Since I'm lucky enough to have found my best friend and marry him, there's only one thing I really want right now. Anyone who knows me know its not jewelry, new clothes, a new car, even yarn, at this point. I really, really want a dog. Really. I've grown up with dogs all my life, and for the first time find myself without a dog and I do feel a void.

Lucky for me, I have a friend who has the most perfect dog in the world and she goes away a lot! Kelly (of the Brady Boy Blog) and her husband are away right now in Disney and we are watching their chocolate lab, Cody. I'm not sure who's doing who a favor! He's honestly the best dog I know. I feel bad saying this because my mom has two dogs, but he's really great. Doesn't jump on furniture without being invited, doesn't leave you if you take him out without a leash, and he has a nice big bark that lets you know if anything's going on outside. I picked him up on Friday and we had a nice, long weekend with him. I have him only til this Friday (sniff) but we've been enjoying him so much! I've taken him for runs and walks, Erm has had him help with some yardwork, etc. Here's some pics!

Cody eating his greenie and Joey being jealous

Cody LOVES the ball I bought him

He also loves to help us drag sticks out of the yard

As I say every time, I was debating telling Kelly and Scott that Cody ran away and we don't know where he is, but I would keep him. Sadly, this would never work. I also think Joey is going to miss him, as they are usually together in the house.

Still no knitting, although I am making great progress in my other project. I MAY take a hiatus from my knitting hiatus this weekend, though. I am participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life with my high school community service group, Helping Hands. My kids are amazing. We started at the beginning of the year on a mission to help kids affected by cancer. We've had lots of projects and fundraisers. Our biggest one was to help a girl who had her leg amputated above the knee after a failed attempt at limb salvage after being diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in her left leg. We raised $9000 to help her buy a prosthetic leg that will let her get back to playing softball, riding her bike, and being a normal kid! This weekend, the event raises money for the American Cancer Society to raise money and awareness to fight cancer. Check out our site!

Withdrawal

I'm going through withdrawal over here. And I don't mean the donuts that are taunting me from the next room. MEAN DONUTS.

And I don't mean knitting, although I really am going through knitting withdrawal. My other project is definitely progressing at a good clip, but I'm dying to get back into that Rusted Root and finish it so that I can actually wear it this summer. Or Erm's Earl Greys so that I can give them to him for his birthday.

My withdrawal has to do with American Idol. Love it or hate it, you have to admit it takes over TV for the 5 months that its on every year. Add to that that I am involved in a pool amongst friends and it takes on a whole new meaning. This year, I had Danny Gokey winning the whole thing and I STILL think he should have. Alas. Since everyone had Danny, Adam, Lil Rounds or Allison in their top 2 this year, it really made for an exciting finale that Kris (in nobody's top 2) was up there last night! It was intense.

That's me on the right and fellow crazy-Idol-obsessed Shaine on the left. Either of us was going to win, depending on who won on TV. And... I WON!! For the first time, and I have been doing this pool for a long time. I was very, very excited.

So that's it. I love Idol, go ahead, make fun. I'm already sad that its over.

But do you know what starts tonight? ;)

Doing things is what we like to do...

So! Since I haven't been knitting, I've been working on lots more other things, and I've actually remembered to take pictures of some of them!

This weekend, I did not get to knit, or run, or bake (my three favorite things). However, my NEXT favorite thing is having dinner parties, and we did that on Saturday! Erm's best friend Skip got engaged in March, right before our trip, and we hadn't had the chance to celebrate with them yet, so Saturday was the night. I love having dinner parties, it gives me a chance to use some of the things that I registered for that everyone swore that I wouldn't use :) I also love coming up with menus, I really enjoy cooking, etc. And, after receiving a book on napkin folding, Erm thinks I have a rare psychological disorder, Foldamania or something.

I also got to show off one of my tablecloths from Paris and all the other things we brought back from our trip!

Notice the folded napkins... sicko

The menu was:

Gougeres (Martha's recipe) with Champagne

Scallops and mushrooms in a white wine & cream sauce with a white wine that Erm picked out...

Individual Beef Wellingtons with an Amarone

Aged Gouda and Parmesan (we took a break from the wine here)

Whiskey granita with vanilla ice cream and a Moscato d'oro dessert wine

The beauty of this meal was that a lot of it was done before our guests came so I could actually spend time with them!

Sunday we were up and at 'em early. It was the first day in a long time that we had no plans, so we took the opportunity to work on our stairs. After the Incident of the Drunken Russian, we found someone else to do our stairs. They came out beautiful! Sunday we worked on starting to finish them. Erm stained, I spackled. I spackled from 10am - 3pm. Lots of spackling!

I actually enjoy it and am good at it and am a spackler for hire for all your spackling needs.

While I was spackling, Erm was working around me, staining the stairs. He started with doing every other stair, so we could still get up and down. Then when I left for a meeting I had, he did the rest of them. The trim and risers still need to be painted, and we need to put some polyeurethane on them, but we're really happy with how they are coming out!

And Joey likes them, too :)

The smackdown

I hate that I am writing this post, but I feel that I have to.

This week, Practical and Reasonable Me came out of hiding and told Happy Go Lucky Me what was up. I have something to do that I have been putting off for... three and a half months now. I don't even want to say what it is because I feel like the etiquette police will come after me, but its something I really need to get done. My plan of doing a little every day hasn't worked. Its past time that is acceptable before it gets done. Nothing is working. So...

I'm banning myself from knitting until I can get it done.

Its a drastic measure, I hope it works!

Friday Fill-Ins

Friday Fill-in!!

1. Apples are to oranges as lemons are to limes.

2. I hate coconut shrimp and that's all I have to say about that.

3. I think I hear spring is finally here.

4. I get emotional at the Olympics every time I see our flag.

5. Do what you want to do, but put your all into it.

6. My brother would go to the lake near our house and behind him was a Radio Flyer wagon; in the wagon was a bucket filled with worms, slugs, frogs, and anything else he could find.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to lobster dinner and watching the Celtics game with my husband, tomorrow my plans include a yard sale and Sunday, I want to spend some quality time with my mom!

Have a great weekend!!!

Thank God I'm a country girl

As usual, we had a very busy weekend. We went to a Derby Party, family dinner with my aunt and uncle yesterday, and Friday night I worked at the carnival that my work puts on every year. Saturday and Sunday morning were dedicated to yardwork, since the Tree Guy was coming today. We got so much done, and it really tuckered me out! I actually started my day pruning back our HUGE holly bush that's right outside the office. Its a monster. Silly me didn't get any pictures of said holly bush, but I did get this guy:

He was one of four or five and they were HUGE. A couple of years ago all my morning glories were destroyed by slugs, so I get mad at them when I see them, but I still avoided stepping on them. Joey watched me from his usual post, which is anywhere that someone might take pity on him and let him out.

I am convinced that Joey is not neutered. He loves being outside too much. I did let him out for a minute under very close supervision, but his wanderlust proved to be too strong and I had to put him back inside.

After I was done goofing around with the slugs and the inmate, I got to the real work of sawing and dragging trees to a big pile so they could be thrown in the chipper.

Look at those guns... its a wonder I wasn't just pulling trees out of the ground with my bare hands!

So, that's my explanation as to why I have NO KNITTING in my blog for days now. I simply haven't had time to make noticeable progress, much less finish, anything that I'm working on. I'm in the home stretch with the Rusted Root, but for some reason I don't feel like I'm any closer to finishing it. And I'm almost done the leg on Erm's Earl Grey's but that picture really wouldn't be any more exciting than the last one. And the only other thing I'm working on is the Sock Yarn Blankie. My knitting life is BO-RING. But... I'm not letting myself start anything else until I finish the RR and Erm's socks. Seriously.

I'm finally happy to be home

So, I really wasn't nuts about coming home from our trip. Erm was, but I wasn't. I actually enjoyed eating in restaurants for two+ weeks, someone turning down my bed at night, and not having anything to worry about except what we were doing that day. And that's just being on vacation and didn't even have anything to do with where we went!

After two weeks, I'm finally back into the swing of being at home and ready to get back into projects around the house and what not. I realized that I never posted a picture of our stairs after the Great Stair Debacle from last month. Luckily, we knew someone else that we were able to call and have come in and fix our stairs. He actually did a beautiful job!

They still need to be sanded and stained, and I have plans for those risers, but you get the idea. They are safe, beautiful, and all trace of that filthy, gross carpet is gone from our house!

And yesterday, I came downstairs to our tall hibiscus in bloom in the dining room/solarium. I never get sick of it.

I'm not sure what I'd do without Erm... I love flowers so much, but I kill all plant life that comes near me. The best I can do is arrange flowers that have already been cut. The hibiscus trees are his baby and he gets even more excited than me when they're in bloom. Right now there are tons of buds on this tree... I'm hoping in a few days they'll all explode and the tree will be in full bloom!